Cloaked Read Online Free PDF Page B

both of hers and squeezing as if she’s falling and I’m her lifeline. Then she sobs, “It is my bruzzer, my dearest, sweetest bruzzer, he is disappeared. You must find him!”
    “Where is he?”
    “If I knew zat, I would not need your help.”
    I feel my face get hot, so hot even my ears start to sweat a little.
    Seeing my discomfort, she says, “ Pardonnez-moi. I know you do not mean to humiliate yourself, but I am desperate. My bruzzer, heir to ze Alorian throne, he is lost.”
    “Lost?” What does she want me to do about it? I mean, not that I wouldn’t walk across coals for the girl, but what can I do that a staff of security guards can’t?
    “ Oui . He disappeared after being placed under a witch’s curse.”
    Oh. Of course. The hot ones are always crazy. Nice house, too bad no one’s home.
    “You have . . . witches in your country?”
    She rolls her eyes in a very un-princess-like way. “Ze witches, zey are everywhere. It is only zat most people, zey do not see.”
    I nod, like it makes sense, but I must not do it convincingly enough because she says, “Ze waitress downstairs who has all ze biggest-tipping customers, ze bellman who seems to get ze lightest suitcases. Zis is what witches do. Zey make zere lives easier. I am sure you can think of other examples, something closer to you, perhaps.”
    I try to think who she could mean. Then I remember: There are no witches. I nod.
    “But ze witches in Zalkenbourg, zey are not so harmless. And my poor bruzzer, he is too foolish to know zat ze village girl he liked was really Sieglinde, ze powerful Zalkenbourgian witch in disguise. He went in her cottage—and poof!”
    “Poof?”
    “She turns him into a frog.”
    I scratch my ear. “Did you say a frog?”
    “Oui.”
    I look at her a long time, with her fake frown and her fake tears, and I think she’s not as pretty as I thought she was. She obviously thinks I’m a big jerk. I bow, so she can’t say I was disrespectful, and say, “Your Highness, I thank you for bringing me your repair. I hope it’s met with your approval. I need to get back to work now.”
    “You do not believe me?”
    “I think you’re making fun of me. I know I’m just a peasant. Maybe you got bored with clubs.” I turn away, but it’s difficult.
    “ Non. No. I do not make fun of you. Please. You must see.”
    She reaches for a French romance novel, resting on the table beside her. From its pages, she pulls a stack of photographs and papers. “Look.”
    I glance at the photo. It’s a guy about my age, handsome with bright red hair and some kind of big mole over his right eye. He wears a military uniform, and he’s smiling.
    “Zat is Philippe, before ze spell.” Victoriana points to the mole. “Zis is ze famous Alorian birthmark. It is shared by many great kings.”
    She hands me the photo, revealing the second, a frog with a red strip on its head. Like the prince, it has a large spot above its eye.
    “Zis is him now,” she says, and I see the tears, glittering on her eyelashes.
    It does look a lot like the prince would look, if he was a frog. I gaze into Victoriana’s moist eyes and abandon the ideas that she’s playing a joke on me. Someone’s playing with her is what’s happening. “Someone probably kidnapped the prince and has him captive somewhere. They must have painted the frog.”
    “Zat is what we zought may be. So we consulted an Alorian witch, a powerful sorceress who has a magical earpiece. She can communicate with animals—at least, animals who were once human. I talk wiz my bruzzer.”
    “You talked to a frog?”
    “ Oui. I ask him questions, questions only Philippe would know, about ze secrets we had as children. It is no doubt to me zis frog is him. And look at his eyes.”
    I glance back at the photo. His eyes are, indeed, the same ocean color as Victoriana’s.
    Stop! Of course the frog isn’t her brother. Her brother is dead, and she’s crazy with grief. Poor girl. Just shows even rich